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tv   Hardball With Chris Matthews  MSNBC  October 29, 2013 4:00pm-5:01pm PDT

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now. msnbc.com. you might even hear from me. thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. "hardball" starts right now. is ted cruz a republican freddy krueger? let's play "hardball." ♪ good evening. i'm chris matthews back in washington. let me start tonight with this grotesquery that now presents itself as the righteous right side of the party. the freddy krueger that threatens with credit defaults. we now have work this week on halloween on what the voter's reaction is to this specter. two-thirds of the voters of virginia which is voting next week say they hold a stark, negative view of the republican party nationally. worse yet, the same two-thirds say they are voting for the
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democratic candidate for governor next week because they can't stand for the brand of the guy running against him. his name is republican. all have such a dread of the grand old party today that now think of it to be feared. eugene robinson and joan walsh. both are msnbc political analysts. well a political storm is brewing in virginia. that could tell us which way the country is headed now. for nearly 40 years covering the last nine elections, the party occupying the white house has lost the following race. this shows that streak may be about to end. terry mcauliffe leads ken cuccinelli by 12 points. his largest margin in the poll yet. and when mcauliffe supporters asked what motivates their vote, as i said, nearly two-thirds, 64%, say it's the chance to vote against the republican cuccinelli. by just not being the extreme right winger, the democrat gets
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the bulk of the votes. this matches, by the way, almost the 65% of virginia voters who have now said they have an unfavorable opinion of the republican party nationally suggesting the force driving this election of virginia next tuesday is the negative voter feeling about the republican party nationally. gene, this is stark stuff. i know we live in washington. i know virginia's to our south across the potomac. but this is the canary in the mine that just died for the republican party. >> well, i think it did. if you look at virginia, it's a purple state. it was red, it's become more blue. it's gone for obama a couple of times. but it's very close. it's a changing state. growing hispanic population. it's like the country in some sense. >> the numbers are almost exactly the same as the numbers nationally. >> exactly. and you can see cuccinelli is getting killed in the polls. in large part it's because he's very far to the right. he's also tied to governor bob
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macdonald who has had had ethics problems. and the government shutdown. the republican identification with the government shutdown, i think, was a huge factor in this race. and will be a huge factor on election day. >> i always see interesting coincidents. coincidental facts. a third that say they don't like the republican party nationally say they're voting against cuccinelli in the other race. two-thirds saying i don't like republicans, i'm not voting for a republican. that's pretty stark evidence of what's to come. this may be the first primary for 2014 if you look at it that way. >> i think it really is. there's another since you guys love numbers, there's another number that jumped out at me though. three times as many people in virginia strong opponents of the tea party as are strong supporters of the tea party. and both groups are equally likely to vote. that never happens. we think of the tea party people
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as being the people who are motivated. they're the one who is always turn out. and cuccinelli has banked had his campaign on saying this is a weird off-year election. if i can get my base out, i'm going to be fine. but it turns out this same process of turning against republicans is turning people against the tea parties. >> you're so smart. this is the old karl rove theory that no matter how much the middle worried about you, you can get the nasties out. right on that point, virginia matters because its election results are as you've been saying is nearly identical matchup to the national numbers as we were just mentioning. catch this number. i don't care if you like numbers or not. you'll like this one. in the 2012 presidential election obama got 51.1% of the vote. mitt romney got 47.2%. in virginia the president got 51.2% and romney got 47.3%. reached a new high in today's
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washington post poll with 53% of virginians openly opposing the tea party. well a year ago 41% supported the tea party. and only two years ago more virginians supported the tea party. 45-43. while the republican brand has taken a beating nationally, the tea leaves of virginia -- i know that was funny. it was mine. the sub brand, the tea party is taking a beating as well. gene, it seems to me that you can't generalize too much. obviously there are a lot of federal employees. >> exactly. >> but those of us who think of virginia as the old virginia. the old state of -- you know, it's the bird family and all that stuff and the massive resistance. it's not that state anymore. >> that doesn't sum up the state anymore, no. there's still some very, very conservative people in virginia, but there's lots of newcomers and lots of immigrants. >> like the next governor. >> huge -- >> like the next governor. >> exactly.
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like the next governor. immigrant carpet bagger, whatever you want to call him. >> george allen wasn't from virginia. look. allen wasn't from virginia. robb wasn't from virginia. >> one factor in this race, though, and certainly in the tea party numbers was the shutdown because of the heavy federal government presence here in northern virginia. the tea party's hostility toward government employees and government spending in general. including defense spending which partly explains i think why with cuccinelli is getting beat down in newport news. >> these numbers are stirring. look at this. among the voters down there, republicans have once again fielded a candidate who women generally flee from in droves. if women flee in droves. even in the case of rape and incest which for some people is an exception is losing to terry mcauliffe among women. this is like the new york mayor's race.
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24-point difference. among basically even among men tied. so the issues that grab our attention and women in the media and outside the media didn't seem to move the men. maybe they're gun oriented or something. they're still with cuccinelli. but a 24-point spread for women. what do you make of that? >> i would give terry mcauliffe some credit there. he has not been afraid to run on the social issues in virginia. >> no, he isn't. >> he and his people saw that there was this gender gap and it could be widened. cuccinelli also supports a personhood bill which makes contraception illegal. he has gone to go against the anti-sodomy wall. so he's run a campaign that is innovative for virginia seeing that these social issues were going to move the needle. they've moved the needle quite a lot. >> are you sure about that, joan?
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talking about the iud. what method of birth control would be effected by this? >> it could be the iud. it's anything that stops implantation. it depends on the wording of the law. so some supporters of it wiggle out by saying we never got far enough, necessarily to get the law passed. we might have negotiated that out. they even put at risk some oral forms of contraception. >> wall street has reached its highest level today. the dow jones gained 111 points and closed at a new high in history. in history, the s&p closed at a record high as well. he kills our enemies and he makes us rich. so why are you bitching? what is the problem with the right? why don't they ever -- even in their own self-negative money interests, kwbt they aleast say i'll say this about this customer, at least he makes us rich. and he kills our enemies.
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if w did that, they'd make him the next saint. >> that's been the pattern with democratic presidents. they're hated. >> last question to you, joan. can't he make them happy even by making them rich and killing our enemies? what does he have to do, this guy? >> apparently not. apparently not. they are so bought into thinking that he is, you know, a demon and thinking that their voters want to hear that. some of them do. some of them don't. many voters, most voters recognize that this man has done what he can do for the economy and that he's been dealt a tough hand. >> let me try it another way. he left us with the clown car. left us with the worst financial disaster since the great depression. he left us sitting on his lap when they left. aft they've failed on both counts and then this guy comes in and succeeds glowingly on both counts taking down al qaeda from the top on television, okay?
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and he takes -- he doubles the dow back from the duoldrums it was in under w. and not a wimper of well, i'll give him that. i don't like him, but i'll give him that. just a little grumble of, yeah, i like that. nothing. >> no. no. a lot of them hate him and they see political gain in trashing him. and they can't give him any credit whatsoever. and, yes, some of it does have to do with his race, sorry to say. >> some basic human reaction. i'm accused of saying -- i want to say when i'm exactly sure. but sometimes you got to wonder what don't they really, really like about him. thank you for the chuckle and the thoughts of course. and for the point of view and thoughts. very connected, actually. by the way, election day is this coming tuesday. polls in virginia are going to close at 7:00 eastern. and "hardball," luckily we get
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to do it. we'll be first with the results. the exit polling. we'll tell you how the canary did before he died in terms of the right wing. that's next tuesday at 7:00 eastern. by the way, coming up, it's one thing for the right wing to take shots. now the national review is. i don't think they meant it as a compliment. also republicans crying crocodile tears over the problems with the rollout of president obama's health care plan. they're pretending all they want to do is fix it. can you believe that? they just want to fix it. >> we've gone through 44 votes, 48 votes now, of you trying to dismantling the legislation. you call that cooperation? i don't. >> i like that guy out of his chair. plus it's been a year since hurricane sandy hit the northeast and aid still isn't getting to many of those who desperately need it. and let me finish tonight with the voters' want for politicians to work together. this is "hardball," the place for politics.
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well, if republicans don't win control of this senate next year, they may be left out of power for awhile. in 2014 senators up for re-election include democrats who came to power when barack obama was elected president back in 2008. democrats are defending 21 seats versus 14 seats for republicans. but in 2016, it's republican senators who will be playing defense. they'll be dechding the seat gain they won in 2010. seven from states obama won. look at all the red on that map. tackling the fact it's a presidential election year turnout will be higher than it normally is. we'll be right back. [ fishing rod casting line, marching band playing ] [ male announcer ] the rhythm of life.
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welcome back to "hardball." the republican's party internal war continues to rage. the newest editors at the conservative national review called out bomb throwers on the
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right like ted cruz. they called them apocalyptic conservatives. that their strategy of shutting down the government had more poisonous divisions in the party. quote, conservative groups that have internalized the apocalyptic view of politics believe the most effective model for gaining ground is simply pressuring republicans to be more confrontational. the first step of the defunding strategy was not to persuade most republicans it was a good idea. it was to force them to go along with it whether or not they agreed. it turned out the power to move the house republican caucus is not the power to move the world. and passing legislation the normal way. in other words, the exact opposite of what ted cruz is pitching. >> what do all the washington strategists say in 2014? let's go back to the model of '06, '08, and '12. you guys pushing for a standard on obama care, that's risky. no, no, no, no.
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just keep your head down and we'll win races. that's not how you win races. that's based on the oh, so clever idea that if your opponent is here on the spectrum, that you have to be infinitesimally to their right so that you can capture every marginal voter right up to where they are. the problem is if you do that you destroy every single reason anyone has to show up and vote. >> so which visual will win out in the republican party? ed rendell and michael steele. governor rendell, sometimes when i watch that guy, they turn off the sound if that's possible. i see a e van g-- evangelicalis with the hands and the religious intonation and gesture. is he apocalyptic? is this something years from now
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we can decide or something right now something really apocalyptic. we either go the right way which is godly or we're going the wrong way which is ungodly. i mean, is this about budget deficits? is this about something you put your fingers on like mathemat s mathematics? or something else he's talking about here? i think he's talking apocalyptics. i see it. your thoughts. >> i do too. and, you know, it's working for him. people say, well, this strategy was a failure. sure, it was a failure. it was a failure for republicans nationally. it was a failure for republicans in the congress. but was it a failure for ted cruz? he's got bigger fund raising lists as a result of what he did. he's got converts that will go to the wall for him in iowa and states like that. was it a failure from his perspective? maybe not. >> so it's all about -- governor, is it all about getting the right wing rail, get that rail position hardest right you can get and make sure rand paul or nobody else gets there. as long as you hold to that position, hardest right candidate, you're going to get a
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huge chunk of votes. is that the thinking? >> absolutely. i think ted cruz is motivated totally selfishly in this. he's not think of the country. he's not thinking of his party. he's thinking of himself. but it may be a strategy that works with republican primary voters. remember, primary voters are a small slice of the overall republican electorate. it may not work with the electorate at large, but it could work with the primary voters. >> i want you to respond to that. there was a guy called george mcgovern. he made sure nobody got to his left. nobody get to my left or right, i win. >> i win. and that's cruz's stance here. no one getting to his right as he sets up the republican primary march which he's spent four times in iowa. >> and the right wing guy wins. >> right. >> by the way, he's going to south carolina. >> exactly. well, there you are. and i think it's important to know that he mentioned going back to the -- you know, 2006,
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2008, and 2012. he skipped 2010 and 2009. and it's something about what we did when i was at the rnc in that period -- >> when you won. >> when we won. i didn't have to go hard extreme. i had to be common sense. i had to bring people to the party because, remember, we were a party out of power in disfavor with the american people. we had to rebuild that -- >> i get it! you would be today a guy who didn't shut down the government who didn't threaten default but waited to see how this obama rollout occurred and then run against that. >> yeah. >> you would have done that. but they don't do that now. >> they don't do that now. >> i like to advance you. >> i appreciate it. >> let me go to senate majority leader mcconnell is being challenged next year. in a new web video he goes the other way. he pitched a leader in washington who can negotiate and get things done. he's going for the other position. not exactly a message that will endear him to tea party types. he is accepting the roll of leadership playing his strengths.
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not this rabble-rouser out there. let's watch. ♪ >> minority leader mitch mcconnell helped pave the way for this. >> mcconnell is a terrific leader. there's nobody who's been better than mcconnell. he's good, he's tough, he's smart. he knows what he's doing. >> mitch mcconnell who in the end is the person who more than anyone else got this deal to the finish line. >> mitch mcconnell. >> senator mcconnell was the adult here. what would have happened here if he hadn't been there? >> it's amazing, governor, how the republican party's swing to the right is so stark that lou dobbs is now on the more liberal side of this swing. this lou dobbs who you cite now as your establishment support beam. your thoughts. i thought it was a good ad because it played to his strengths. your thoughts. >> absolutely. it's a good ad because he can't
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run away from the fact he's been in washington for years. don't compromise that. go with it and go with your strength. you're a strong leader and you deliver for kentucky. you remember in '94 which was a republican wave year, ted kennedy survived. in the end, he said, look, i bring things to massachusetts that nobody else can do. and people said, you know, he's right. why would we want to lose him? and in kentucky, the message is going to be twofold. one, mitch mcconnell is a good national leader. but two, he delivers for kentucky. >> let's look at an example, here's ohio governor john kas h kasich. had strong words on the subject of a strong social safety yet. can you believe it? he told "the new york times" i'm concerned about the fact that there seems to be a war on the poor. that if you're poor, somehow you're shiftless and lazy. "the times" pointed out that kasich has expanded medicaid in his state, given resources to
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the mentally ill, and backed the mayor who raised taxes to improve schools. michael? >> i think the governor is dead on. and i'm very happy and rather proud to hear him put that out on the table. i think the party should talk more about the poor in the context of our policies and the things that we believe will help lift the poor. you know, i ask the questions when i give speeches, how many got up today and said all i want to be is poor. and no one raises their hands. the poor doesn't get up thinking that. i think our party is uniquely poised to do that. and i think the leadership of guys like kasich and others will help frame that argument into the future. if given the opportunity. and they have that sister soldier moment when they say to the rank and file, this is the way forward. not over there in the woods and in the trees, but this way talking about poor and opportunity and all that. >> looks to me like the crazy right is now fighting the reasonable right. as well as the left. >> yeah. >> anyway, thank you michael
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steele. thank you governor ed rendell. up next, the hit tv show "homeland" now for the pre-school set. this is "hardball," the place for politics.
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these are troubling times in the kingdom. more discounts than we knoweth what to do with. now that's progressive. obama is in so much trouble he called hillary clinton and he said, could you start early? you know, the president every week he has a weekly -- i think it's usually a radio or tv address to the american people. here's what it was this weekend. >> it's called the market place. and for americans without health insurance and americans who buy insurance on their own because they can't get into work, it's a very big deal. when you're one of those people, the affordable care act makes you part of a -- >> the guy can't even get on. >> time for the sideshow. that was david letterman making a not so subtle point that the
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president faces a tough road as he forges ahead with healthcare.gov. of course rome wasn't built in a day either. but comedians continue to have a field day. here's jon stewart last night. >> the top story, the ongoing struggle to fix the beleaguered health care website. tonight i am happy to report progress. >> the latest change is strictly cosmetic. that smiling woman is gone. >> they got rid of that smiling lady. although, i'm not sure the new home page is an improvement. >> anyway, in fairness, stewart also highlighted the efforts of many democrats to fix the problems with the a ca website. >> we have to fix it, not nix it. >> fix it, don't nix it. >> fix it! do not nix it! correct it. do not reject it. improve, don't remove it.
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>> i don't want to miss anything. >> everyone misses something. >> not me. up next, republicans who repeatedly have tried to destroy the affordable care act now claim to be the ones grieving most about its problems. and later, it's been one year now since hurricane sandy and federal aid is only trickling out to the victims in new york and new jersey who need it badly. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. maestro of . baron of the build-out. you need a permit... to be this awesome. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. (aaron) purrrfect. (vo) meee-ow, business pro. meee-ow. go national. go like a pro.
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i'm milissa rehberger. president obama praised former house speaker tom foley at a congressional memorial service today saying he brought civility to congress and was a skilled consensus builder. foley died this month at 84. survivors of superstorm sandy are lining up the shores to commemorate the one-year anniversary. and a brazilian surfer took
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on a mammoth wave to set a new record. that wave is believed to be over 100 feet. back to "hardball." ♪ officials at the center for medicare and medicaid services who are charged with implementing the exchange has added and i quote, due to a compressed time frame, the system wasn't tested enough. and frankly, three years should have been enough and had the administration provided more forthcoming answers and shared in a transparent manner the reality of the challenges it was encountering in the implementation process, i suspect many of these glitches could have been avoided. >> welcome back to "hardball." the gop blame game is certainly working there at that table. that was u.s. congressman dave camp speaking at another gop hearing on the affordable care act. as you saw in that clip, the same republicans who have made it their mission to sabotage the
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president's health care law are now outraged at the rocky rollout they hoped for and helped cause, actually. anyway, the gop's effort to defund and cut the law drew heavy fire at the hearing. when bill pascrell from new jersey rose to defend the law from an onslaught. this is pascrell addressing the hypocrisy of the gop's assault reminding people when george w. bush expanded medicaid, democrats opposed it but then worked to make it better to improve it. >> we lost the policy fight, and what did we do? we went back to our districts and we told our seniors although we voted no, we personally believe and will work with the bush administration to make it work. that's what we did. and how many of you stood up to do that? none. zero. zero. >> there are numerous proposals including the one that i'm a
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co-sponsor. >> i yield back. i take back the time, sir. let me take the time back. are you serious, what you just said? are you really serious? we've gone to 44 votes, 48 votes now, of you trying to dismantle the legislation. you call that cooperation? i don't. >> congressman bill pascrell joins us right now along with sam stein of "the huffington post." you're like the guy i grew up with. maybe slightly older on slightly younger, but you're just like me father's friends. you speak regular glienglish. you talk the talk. 40 times they voted against the bill the president had and there's not a single republican for 150,000 years that's had a health care plan. there's 40 million people sitting right now in the e.r. then this griffin character from arkansas, you know where he stands. for nothing. i'm so glad you called him out.
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i'm sure he came up to you afterwards and said how can you be so direct with me. anyway, tell me what the reaction was to being direct for once with these people. >> some folks were surprised, chris, that i yielded my time. we only had three minutes. but you know what? i like that. i knew where it was going. he had his sheet of paper in his hands. where the hell was this one year ago, two years ago. he just signed onto that bill three days ago. this is hypocrisy at its worst. i wish i had more than three minutes, but i'm going to defend what i think should be defended. you know, chris, we taked way back when three years ago there were things in this i didn't like and some things that should have been in that weren't. but we're done. here we are. it's all over again. it's like repetition, repetition. i say help us make it better. >> you know, they remind me, sam, of ben brantley, the
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theater critic at "the new york times." he doesn't have a play to put on. he doesn't put anything out there for the public to look at. he just sits around and comes in on monday morning and trashes something. how can republicans get away with not being for anything at all for the working uninsured? and then they come off and they dance around, prance around suggesting little nuances of concern they've had. what a joke. your thoughts. >> let's stipulate for the time being that the rollout of the website has been pretty bad. but if you ask a republican if they want it to be resolved quicker, they say no. they're cheering on the failure. same with the exchanges. the republican governors did not take on the responsibility of building a state-run exchange putting the burden on the federal government. that doesn't excuse the federal government for botching the rollout. they should have done this. dave camp's right. they had three years to do this. but there's hypocrisy from the republicans that actively work to undermine this thing and are cheering the failure.
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>> let me get back to the congressman. what you think do that people on the other side of your committee would like to see as the end of this talk? do they want a better bill? do they have to refirm it? what do they want to do? >> chris, maybe i'm being naive about this, but i think there's still a good 25% to 40% on the ways and means committee that want to see some kind of a breakthrough where they don't feel that they're being tied down if they say something nice about the aca. and i asked today in the very spot that you just showed, i stood and said which one of you are going to tell the parents when you condemn this thing and then destroy it that your kids are no longer going to be covered with special needs. your kids are no longer going to be covered because they have a pre-condition. are you going to tell the parents? do you have the courage and the guts to do that?
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you going to tell the seniors that they're no longer going to get a shot with that famous hole in the doughnut when you're paying premiums but you're not getting benefits? are you going to tell seniors you're going back to the old way? none of you have the courage to do that. and until you do, things are not going to change around here. but what else do you need to know that we're not going away? >> let me go back to sam on the analysis here. it seems the congressman made a good point there. that the democrats didn't dance all over the grave of the prescription drug program. they nursed it along even though it was w's plan. is that a fair statement by the congressman? >> yeah, no. it's absolutely true. if you look at history, that's what happened. i think at some point, some republicans may recognize that president obama is going to be in office through the 2016 elections into 2017 and that there's no way he will sign legislation that repeals his law or that cripples it until it's inoperable. there is two to three more years
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here where they have to recognize that they have an opportunity to work within the confine os. o for they continue to do what they're doing. and i should recommend to the congressman, they should have called this heritage care. not obama care. maybe they would have been more reasonable in working with you on that then. >> that's very interesting and very important point. >> take a look at this, congressman. speaker john boehner brought the economy to the brink by taking us to the edge of a default. yet today he told reporters that the gop's fight against the aca, the affordable care act, is really about growing the economy. that's his concern. let's take a listen. >> obama care is like a wet blanket over our economy. american people are looking for more jobs, better wages. but with all the uncertainty around this law, employers are having a very difficult time making decisions. it's time to delay this. it's time to fix this before it
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gets any worse. >> you know, congressman, hold your ears, but i said a comment -- i used a comment i don't usually use. what do these guys want obama to do? he's talking about a wet blanket. this guy is killing our enemies the way w couldn't with his rooting tooting gi joe talk. this president caught him and killed him. he also doubled the stock market to the point where today the dow jones for the people with some money in their 401(k)s now are going to benefit from. and cut the deficit. >> in half. >> when are these guys going to stop complaining and stay you know what, i'll give him that. just once a year say -- what is it about your colleagues on the right that don't b ever want to give an inch and say he's not a bad guy. he's a good husband. he's a good father. just once in awhile throw him a bone. they don't do that. what do you think of this? >> it doesn't help america, chris. it does not help america whatsoever. from the guy who led the troops into shutting down the
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government which cost us billions and billions of dollars in jobs, just the little while ago, chris, and he's telling us about obama care? we've extended medicare because of the affordable care act. so just that in itself is something that we should all be proud of, both sides, all sides in this issue. >> let me jump in there -- >> will rogers is standing right behind you, congressman. the great american will rogers from oklahoma. he would appreciate the republicans' complete here. last word to you. >> i think he did delay the businessman date in the affordable care act which was a recognition that businesses were uncertain about this. but if the problem here is uncertainty caused by obama care, i don't think john boehner has a leg to stand on because as the congressman rightly said, it wasn't that long ago we were at the brink of a debt default and in the midst of a government shutdown because of efforts to delay and defund obama care. uncertainty is not something republicans appear to worry
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about all that seriously. >> there's a difference between a guy that stops to fix a tire and the guy that runs the car off the road. thank you, bill pascrell. >> thank you. honored to be here. >> and sam stein, thank you for being here. up next, one year after hurricane sandy, aid isn't reaching the people that need it most yet. peter king, an expert on this subject, joins us. and "hardball's" new digital home is here. check out our page where you can connect with the community and watch full shows. just go to msnbc.com/hardball. mt comes to doing what you love, more is better. that's why we designed the all-new nissan versa note, with more technology, to get you into, and out of, tight spots. and more space so that you always have your favorite stuff. and, just for good measure, an incredibly efficient 40 mpg highway. so that when you're doing more, you're spending less. the all-new nissan versa note. your door to more. now get a $139 per month lease on a 2014 nissan versa note.
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. new york mayoral candidate bill de blasio is cruising. according to a new poll, de blasio leads by 45 points. the biggest margin in non-incumbent running for new york mayor was 40 points when beane won back in '73. there's another blog shaping up across at new jersey where christie has the lead. we'll be right back.
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he called me last night around midnight again to ask what else could be done, what we did last night. he was able to, to move forward very quickly with a major disaster declaration for new jersey. he worked on that last night with me. offered any other assets that we need to help. i have to say, the administration, the president himself, and fema administrator craig fugate have been outstanding with us so far. we have a great partnership with them. i want to thank the president personally for his personal attention to this. >> well, we're back. one year after superstorm sandy, thousands of families are still displaced. still stuck in hotels or todaying with friends and relatives. they have had no choice but to leave for good because of the slow pace of federal aid or because of skyrocketing insurance rates. the u.s. congress authorized a
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total of $60 billion to help the victims of sandy. so far only about $5 billion have been spent to restore the damage. another $5 billion have just been allocated. the slow return to normalcy, we've seen elected officials on allocated. work together to put the political self-interest aside and trying to act in the interests of the community. case in point, new jersey governor chris christie -- praising president obama's response to the storm. here he is. >> i'm sure that while the national election is obviously very important, that the people of new jersey at this moment would really be unhappy with me if they thought for a second i was occupying my time thinking about how i was going to get people to vote a week from today. so i don't give a damn about election day, it doesn't matter a lick to me at the moment. i've got much bigger fish to fry than that, so do the people of
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the state of new jersey. let the politicians who are on the ballot worry about election day, it's not my problem. >> peter king, a congressman from new york. congressman you're noted for figuring things outs for ireland or people of this country. let's talk about what we agree on. i have to admit guilt, i was never aware until i went up there under during duress. i actually saw what was happening out there on staten island. they're not resort areas. they happen to be beach but it's where people live, getting hit after getting hit by other factors in their life. they didn't have it made to start with in their life. talk about these people who were hit hard in the new york area. >> you mentioned staten island, long beach, linden hurst, masuh peek what, they were absolutely
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devastated. thousands of people were affected. we had whole areas under water, houses actually blew up. many were on fire and the flooding was so bad the fire department couldn't get to them. it was actually horrible. it looked in some ways like a third world country. we're not talking about mansions, we're talking about solid communities of solid, hard working people. they were devastated. you go to someone's house and the street and the lawn were strewn with family mementos, photos, paintings, toys, it was a terrible, terrible situation, yet the people never gave up, they fought hard and they're still fighting hard today. i never thought coming from the northeast that i would be in the middle of a storm like that. it's just not something we identify with. >> the pictures we're showing now, never got the media attention, but nothing like katrina got. we talked about katrina for
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months around in the media. and new york, the center of the world, never got the attention. imagine you have a house and the house is condemned. it's sitting up on blocks or something or it's been moved and you have no electrical system, the whole area doesn't have an electrical system, the huge capital costs that are involved here, is not just repainting or fixing some shutters, i mean look at this stuff here. what's the condition right now of the politics and what's the condition of the rebuilding. >> the politics, those in new york and new jersey, we're working together. there's no government shutdowns going on in new york and new jersey right now, unlike washington. as far as the rebuilding that's coming in, in congress it took so long, it took over 90 days before the aid was approved. it took ten days for katrina. then you have another 60 days for the government to come up
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with a proposal. you had comments and the damage was so extensive, it took quite a lot of engineering work and the consultation of local mayors and county executives. so i give the administration credit, tom donovan -- again, a lot of it's going to be rebuilding, for instance rebuilding sewage plants, train yards, rail root lines and to do that, we don't want to spend the money and go through this in another four or five years. the money has been spent very smartly and slowly. as a result of that, it has had a hard time getting out. it's now moving a lot more quickly. but you say the money's not being spent fast enough. they would be the first to be yelling if the money was being spent too fast. instead they're being very prudent and working be the county government, state
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government, federal government. other than, money's not being wasted. these are all good projects, these are all good attempts to get the money into people and the homes. insurance companies at times are getting in the way. you get something so large, now 16% of new york city is under water. just to give you an example, in a major urban area to have so much under water, subway system, roads, bridges, it's just terrible. >> i think government in this case is the solution, not the problem. thank you, peter king of new york. we'll be right back after this. when we made our commitment to the gulf, bp had two big goals: help the gulf recover and learn from what happened so we could be a better, safer energy company. i can tell you - safety is at the heart of everything we do.
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let me finish up with hurricane sandy. what it told us was that particularly at times of stress, americans stick together and want to see our leaders doing the same. the most memorable and the most positive reminder of 2012 was a picture of the president of the united states, a democrat, and the governor of new jersey, a republican walking together along the new jersey shore to get the cleanup job going. americans don't ask much of their political leaders, don't ask them to be always cheerful or remembering your name is next time you see them. but they ask you to do the job of managing the fort when it's under attack. we want them to care, to be seen caring.
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the very best of the stories about my personal inside role as top aid to speaker tip o'neill in his six-year relationship with speaker ronald reagan. i'll be at north hills, pennsylvania to talk about my book, "tip and the gipper" which many people have come to us and said they love. thanks for being was, all in with chris hayes starts right now. good evening from new york, i'm chris hayes and today we watched as the federal official who oversees the obama care exchanges appeared before a house committee to testify about the flawed rollout of health care.gov. and we also watched as democrats on that committee reached their limit of just how much phony republican concern they can stomach. >> there had been a little bit and systematic attempt on the o